Bruce Springsteen on Broadway: 5 things to know about The Boss’s new show

By Tom Teodorczuk

Published: Oct 5, 2017 11:31 am ET

‘He was much more intense and personal on Broadway’

Bruce Springsteen

Bruce Springsteen played the first preview performance of his four-month, sell-out Broadway residency last night at the Walter Kerr Theatre in New York, and fans shared their first impressions of his show.

Here are five things to know about the show. Warning: if you don’t want to know what songs he played or other details about the show, stop reading now.

BORN TO RUMINATE:

Turns out The Boss wasn’t wide of the mark when he said in a statement announcing the Broadway gig that “some of the show is spoken, some of it is sung.” Springsteen recounted personal recollections and read passages from his 2016 bestselling memoir, “Born to Run,” which has just been published in paperback.

One audience member put the estimate of songs to spoken word at a ratio of 60-40 in favor of the music. Springsteen kicked off the show by interspersing memories of his first guitar with performing “Growin’ Up.” He discussed the influence of Ron Kovic’s memoir, “Born on the Fourth of July,” on him prior to performing “Born in the U.S.A”.

The Walter Kerr theatre post-performance

SONG SELECTION:

Springsteen played 15 songs in his first preview including perennial concert favorites “Dancing in the Dark,” “Born to Run,” Thunder Road” and “Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out.” But there was no room in the two-hour show for time-honored Springsteen classics such as “Rosalita (Come Out Tonight),” “Glory Days,” “Hungry Heart” and “I’m on Fire.”

Springsteen performed two songs with his wife, Patti Scialfa: “Tougher than the Rest” and “Brilliant Disguise.”

BOSSING BROADWAY:

Springsteen fan Patti Manko told MarketWatch, “This was a completely different Bruce Springsteen to the one you get in his concerts — he was much more intense and personal on Broadway. I had no idea how much of a thoughtful night this would turn out to be.”

Rob Cooke paid $650 for his ticket in the fourth row of the orchestra. “It was astonishing to hear his voice up close,” he said. “I was also impressed how much he has committed to memory. He’s not reading from an autocue. It was a unique and mesmerizing experience.”

But Cooke added, “A concert definitely gives you more value for money — I’ve been at gigs where he has played twice the number of songs. But as the show goes on, it gets more song-centric and he speaks less. I’m coming again in December and my hope is he changes the setlist. I don’t think that will happen though.”

TOM PETTY TRIBUTE:

Springsteen dedicated the show to late rock star Tom Petty, his family and his band The Heartbreakers. The Boss called Petty, who died on Monday, a “long lost brother” on Twitter. Despite advance speculation, he didn’t perform a Petty song on Broadway.

VERIFIED FANS:

While those who didn’t get lucky with TicketMaster’s pre-registration Verified Fan system aren’t thrilled with the ticketing process, fans at the theater said they were happy with the system. “It kept out bots so more real fans get to go,” Cooke said.

Tickets for “Springsteen on Broadway” have been selling for as much as $7,500 on the resale market. But Springsteen said he was happy with the system. “I thought it worked out pretty well,” he told Variety. “According to the information I’ve gotten, we were relatively successful at keeping the tickets out of the secondary market, where the prices skyrocket. It’s always difficult to curtail scalping, but I thought we did a pretty good job.”